Building Your BU Experience

October 31, 2012 at 10:57 AM

Emily Mulloy – CCD/ERC Student Ambassador

After driving nearly 20 hours in a van, we pulled into Nashville, TN: our home for the week. We were tired, but ready to work! While other BU students spent their spring break relaxing in exotic places, we were working hard building wheelchair ramps as a part of BU’s 2011 Alternative Spring Breaks (ASB) program.

As a sophomore, I felt unhappy at BU and questioned my college selection. I was far from home and lonely. My application to the ASB co-coordinator position was an impulsive response to an email from the Community Service Center in attempt to find my place on campus.

After my eventual hire and the following months of planning, there we were: on the front lawn of a woman we didn’t know. While our 12-member group began to work, I looked around at all these strangers who suddenly had become friends. Though we were all different, we united in our common purpose, and later watched that same woman cry with joy as she rolled down the ramp we had built for her.

At a large university like BU, it’s easy to feel lonely and lost without a direction. Unlike in high school, you have to fight to be noticed and recognized as special. But there in Nashville, hundreds of miles away from Boston, I became a part of this small BU community. I realized the limitless possibilities that were in store for me as a BU student.

Sometimes, you have to fight for the experiences you want and the future you desire for yourself. For me, it took a little bit of sawdust and 2x4s, to realize that BU has everything I need as long as I’m willing to look.